This Shabbat Zachor we remember all victims of injustice

Rabbi Adrian Schell

Bet David, Sandton

These verses tell us to do something difficult – remember what Amalek did to us after we left Egypt, while we erase the memory of him. There it says:

Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt. When they encountered you on the way, and you were tired and exhausted, they cut off those lagging to your rear, and they did not fear G-d. Therefore, when G-d gives you peace from all the enemies around you in the land that G-d your Lord is giving you to occupy as a heritage, you must obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. You must not forget.

Shabbat Zachor is always the Shabbat before Purim, because the villain of the Purim story, Haman, is an Amalekite – a direct descendant of Amalek. One way to fulfil the idea of our additional Torah reading is the practice during the reading of the Book of Esther to make noise each time Haman’s name is being read, in effect obliterating his name, while we still remember everything he did to us.

It is a very interesting coincidence that our Shabbat Zachor falls on the same weekend South Africa celebrates Human Rights Day. It is interesting for me that South Africa’s Human Rights Day is connected with the commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.

It is a powerful reminder that Human Dignity is, unfortunately, something we cannot take for granted. History has shown that the rights of others are being violated too often and too easily. It was shown in the story of Amalek attacking the newly-freed Israelites, Haman who planned to kill all the Jews in Persia because of a personal vendetta, the Shoah, and also the apartheid regime that wanted to cement its power.

Last week we all could once again read about and witness the vicious actions of the BDS movement, running a so-called “Israel Apartheid Week” at many universities in South Africa.

Not only that the analogy of Israel being an apartheid state is without any substance, it turns the idea of reconciliation upside down. Because the victims of apartheid, those who were killed or imprisoned, those who were marginalised and deprived of their human rights are once again reduced to objects for a mere political reason.

Again their human dignity has been taken away from them by people who have no interest in human rights at all, who don’t care for the Palestinians or the victims of apartheid. The goal of the BDS movement is to wipe out Israel and the Jewish people no matter what, including the memory of the victims of the apartheid regime.

That is why we need to oppose those actions and why we cannot tolerate the abuse of the people who suffered under apartheid. Why we need to make it clear that there is a fundamental difference between the State of Israel, its pluralistic and democratic make-up, and the utterly unjust and to the core inhuman reality of the apartheid state which we all have overcome.

This Shabbat Zachor, this Human Rights Day, we remember all victims of injustice no matter where. We vow that we will be vigilant, and work towards a better future for the Jewish people, for this country, and for all humankind.   

Shabbat shalom